Theme & Variations introduces a new topic each week, presenting a wide range of music associated with that theme. Drawn from a millennium of Western classical music, the selections are an eclectic mix of familiar favorites and rarities. Theme and Variations is produced locally in Discover Classical's studios by host Joe Law.
Shakespeare’s plays have inspired a good deal of theatrical music, but today you’ll hear music originally intended for the concert hall. It’s by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Niels Gade, Felix Mendelssohn, Alfred Reed, Bedřich Smetana, Johan Svendsen and Richard Strauss.
Passover begins on April 22, and this week’s program brings you the Passover story in the form of a complete performance of Handel’s Israel in Egypt, along with some related instrumental music by Handel.
“New Music for Old Instruments” is this week’s theme, with music for “obsolete” instruments composed by Seymour Barab, Frederick Delius, Jean Françaix, Paul Hindemith, Jocelyn Morlock, Nico Muhly, Peter Schickele and John Tavener.
Music history is full of references to music that doesn’t exist—sometimes because it was lost or sometimes because it was left incomplete by the composer. This week, you’ll hear reconstructions of “missing” music by J. S. Bach, Alexander Borodin, Giacomo Puccini, Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann.
